Lost In Her Thoughts - A Typography Painting by Jennifer Gallagher

Hello! 

It's Jennifer Gallagher here with you again, this time with a canvas pad painting for our theme of Typography. I love alphabetic and numeric stencils. So, this month I'm using some of my favorites to put together a super easy but visually impactful painting. You could use this same technique in your art journal or other mixed-media projects. It's super easy, so let's get started.

I am starting with a sheet of canvas pad that measures 12 by 16 inches.

I have picked a few colors of acrylic paint to build my background. I am using Naples Yellow, Light Portrait Pink and Fluorescent Pink and blended them in a random way through my stencil. The stencil is StencilClub January 2019 release. Once the numbered section of the stencil is filled in with paint, I remove the stencil and blur the edges of the paint with a baby wipe to soften the look a bit.

I am starting in the right-hand bottom corner and working my way straight up to the top right corner following the same steps.

Once the right-hand side is covered, I placed a focal point stencil into the center of the canvas pad. I'm using Pam Carriker's create face stencil. I'm using Naples Yellow and Portrait Pink to fill in the face.

I placed the 9x12 stencil back down at the edge of where the face stencil meets the background and applied some of the fluorescent pink onto the background. Then I used the same color to add some depth to the face stencil.

Next, I continued to fill in the background around the rest of the canvas.

To extend the focal image, and to add a bit more of a focal typography element, I placed the 9x12 stencil from the December 2017 StencilClub Set "Borderlines" under the face and painted it with Bright Aqua Green. Then I sporadically added portions of the stencil around the canvas. Using the same stencil, I added the smaller numerals from the stencil in Light Blue Violet.

I wanted to give the canvas a bit more of a vintage vibe so I dropped a dime-size drop of India Ink in Sepia in the four corners of the canvas and rubbed it around. I let the ink set for just a few seconds and then wiped it around with a baby wipe. You can remove as much as you want until you get a finish you like.

I have a lot of numbers here and now it's time to add some letters. So I'm going with the "Are We There Yet" stencil by Carolyn Dube. I'm not filling in the whole words just bits of words trying to take advantage of the various font types in this stencil. I"m using grey acrylic paint. 

Then using the leftover grey paint, I used a paintbrush to add some shadowing around the face stencil.

The final step is to add a little white Posca paint pen inside the numeral focal point and then outline it and the face with a black gelly roll pen.

I hope you have enjoyed this typography tutorial. Remember, if you aren't interested in creating a painted canvas you could transition this idea straight into your art journal. If you would like to see more of my work visit me on my blog, FaceBook, or on Instagram.

Happy creating,

Jennifer Gallagher